Attitudes of medical students towards taking part-time jobs: a study amongst first year clinical students of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan

Abstract

Background: Student part-time jobs are employments taken up by students while in school. Students in tertiary institutions do engage in part-time jobs because of the associated benefits. Some of these benefits include work experience, independence, financial support, and job satisfaction. Different studies have reported different attitudes towards taking part-time jobs among university students.

Objective: To determine the attitudes of medical students in their first clinical year of study at the University of Ibadan medical school towards taking up part-time medical jobs within the university hospital.

Methods: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among medical students in their first clinical year of study. Eighty one first clinical –year medical students were recruited to participate in this study. All participants were interviewed using a self-administered questionnaire to obtain information on bio-data, scholarship benefit status, level of satisfaction with monthly income, choices of part-time jobs, and the factors that might informed choice of a parttime job. No questionnaire was discarded because all were correctly filled. Data collected was coded, entered, and analysed using the SPSS version 16 software. Analyses of all variables were done using descriptive statistics.

Results: The mean age of the 81 respondents was 20.8 (±1.6) years and 51.9% were males. A higher proportion of the male respondents were studying on scholarship (57.1%), compared to that of the females (31.6%). Respondents studying on scholarship had a higher level of financial satisfaction. Over 90% of the participants supported the idea of part-time medical job creation for medical students. The majority of the respondents (64.2%) prefer to take up the job position of research assistantships. The amount of wages to be earned was the most predominant factor considered among the male respondents in their decision for taking up a part-time medical job, while opportunity to learn new skills was the most predominant factor considered by the females.

Conclusions: Medical students had a positive attitude towards combining work and study.

Keywords: Attitude; Medical students; Clinical year; Part-time; Medical jobs